Mice.

Old-fashioned mouse traps are humane and effective. Properly set up, no mouse caught in one knows a thing about it.

A cat!

One of the people I spoke to this morning has two cats! I'm always scared with the traditional mouse traps that someone will accidently touch one or the dog might get her nose in it. In fact, you'd think the dog would deter the mice but they seem to be co existing quite happily!

Not a cat! Ours catches them outside, brings them in and lets them go! Think he is a very kind, caring cat and obviously worried about the poor little things being cold and alone outside

My husband found one in his pillow case - after his siesta!

Argh! That would freak me out!!!! I can cope with the dead bodies in the traps but not a live one in my pillow-case.

Strange thing is, I've got an open cat flap [cat flap without the flap that is] for the dog [which makes it a dog flap without a flap]; what I mean is I've got a hole in the wall leading to the garden that's been there for years, but I've never before had a problem with mice coming into the house, which made me wonder if there was a nationwide mouse problem? When the kids were little we had them in the village hall where playgroup was held, and they got into the drawers and everywhere. In the partners flat, they took the buttons off his mum's dressing gown which was hanging up in the bedroom and moved them into the sofa where thay had a nest under the cushions. It was SO Beatrix Potter.

You really need to seal all the mouse-ways into the house. Can you put a door back on the dog flap? Seal cracks and crevices by stuffing them with steel wool. If you're going to use traps – and frankly, you have to – try baiting them with peanut butter as it's hard for the mice to get at without triggering the trap. Wear rubber gloves when handling traps so the mice can't smell you and put the traps all around the room at right angles to the walls, baited side towards the walls. This is because mice travel alongside the walls.

Bear in mind that a single female mouse can produce about 2,500 descendants in six months.

A few years ago we had a big mouse problem at our cottage and were recommended to use wire wool; went to the local ironmonger and asked for wire wool and he said 'Uh uh, mice is it? - you need No.3 grade' . Stuffed the wire wool round the entrance points which included the drain out of the kitchen and a couple of days later wondered why the bath water didn't soak away and the loo water came up to greet us; the wire wool had taken off (probably with help from Mrs Tittlemouse and her gang) down the drain pipe towards the septic tank and blocked everything. Then had to get a local farmer/builder in to dig up the garden to find the bit which was blocked at the trap. He suggested removing the trap but then qualified his suggestion with - well, if you do that you may get the rats coming up from the septic tank. About £250 later we called out Rentokil who dealt with the problem quickly and efficiently which just goes to show you should go with your instinct not local folklore!!

Average of six young produced every three weeks from the age of two months. Do the maths.

We bait ours with bits of Mars Bar. Mice can't resist it and they get their teeth stuck....

Might try peanut butter though, then I can eat the Mars Bar.

Do you have a tumble dryer vented through the wall? My daughter had a problem with mice a few years ago....and they were getting in through the vent...it was warm and there was lots of lovely fluff for their nests! She had the outside hole covered with fine wire mesh to stop them getting in.

Yes I have got one of those but it has got a sort of plastic cover on it. The dog's going on holiday next week, so I can throw everything at the mouse problem, including filling in the hole in the wall. Annoyingly, thinking that the problem was solved yesterday I ate the rest of the chocolate buttons.

Tales from the front:
1. My Nana used to splat em with the coal shovel if she got a chance.
2. I had a bad mouse problem. Found that once a humane trap smelled of terrified mouse pee it would never catch another (they are not daft). Caught one in old-fashioned trap, by its tail. Walked up lane with loudly squeaking victim to release it... aaargh! The only thing that worked in the end was full strength rat poison. (Horrid stuff)
3. In another house. Caught cute mouse in humane trap. Walked 300 yards up the road and released it into nice rural looking hedgerow. Half an hour later looked out of patio doors. There is cute mouse sitting on the patio in broad daylight, staring in at me. I rest my case re intelligence of rodents.
(still we have our revenge in the field of medical science. Where would cancer research be without them. Nowhere, that's where.)

Jess, how did you know it was the same mouse?

My cats bring in mice occasionally, which then escape and hide under or behind furniture . I find the only solution is a mouse trap. I bought it from Homebase. it is enclosed in a plastic box, avoiding injury to the cats. Peanut butter is the recommended bait - always gets results.
My other problem is baby bunnies brought in too, they lead me a fine dance!

Annobel I don't - but I have never, before or since, looked out into the garden and seen a mouse staring back at me!

Oh dear; not imagining it..mice have been in the living room as well. This is a wake up call as my house is full of junk and clutter and, quite frankly needs a jolly good clear out. Hadn't thought about cleaning the mouse trap out [can't work out how to get the detachable bit to detatch]. Will see if dirty mouse trap with remaining chocolate button catches another one tonight.[ note to self; must stop getting up throughout the night to have a look, even though combining it with trip to loo....]

No don't check it in the middle of the night Crimson.
I also found that tacking DH's bird feeding habits helped round here. (The kind of bird feeding where said birds spill their seed on the ground... Literally not metaphorically)

I've got an incinerator in the garden [it's a long story; was married to an engineer who built a huge oven like thing in the garden to burn the cat litter that we used to use..it's over 6 ft tall and we never used it because the smoke blew all over the village; it was cruelly pointed out when he left that I'd disposed of him in some way in it....] and in front of it is my bird table. In the early evening this cute little furry thing comes out of it and helps himself to the food. But..you've just hit the nail on the head because, guess where I keep the bird seed? On the window ledge at the back of the living room where I've just found the mouse droppings! This is like an Inspector Clouseau [sp] murder mystery, and, with my interpid colleagues from gransnet this infestation will soon be just an unpleasant memory [I hope].

Well stopping ever-so-kindly laying on a buffet for the mice would be a start

crimson JessM is right about the intelligence of rodents. If your mouse problem is severe, you will need to use at least two different sorts of traps, preferably more. Once an adult mouse recognises the danger of a trap because another mouse has been caught/killed by it (peed in it with fear), it will avoid it and teach its young to avoid it, who will, in turn, teach their young.

Happily, I've never needed traps. The only time I had an infestation – a mouse family moving in when workman started renovating a neighbouring house that had been empty for a year – my cat thought they had been provided as a special treat for him. His mouse catching was terrific but his mouse control wasn't so great. Still he did get rid of all of them fairly quickly and then had to sleep for about a week afterwards.